


something, someday

by nanchons



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Angst, M/M, mental illness maybe, this will eventually be happy i promise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-10 18:24:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7856227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanchons/pseuds/nanchons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He thinks he’ll always love him. Since Teiko, honestly, there was nothing Daiki could do. Once he fell for Tetsu, something strong and sickening settled in his gut, something that twists him all up inside whenever he thinks of losing him or hurting him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is my sad sick cathartic attempt at:  
> 1\. putting into words how heartwrenchingly sad my brain makes aokuro  
> 2\. making everything i do have some element of aokaga  
> 3\. making aomine as anguished, narcissistic, and self hating as possible

“I’m just so sick of you feeling sorry for me all the time,” Daiki spits, his stomach dropping at the thought of all of this coming out into the open. 

He and Tetsu have been trying out being together. After high school they’d been in contact on and off, Daiki still hopelessly in love with Tetsu, of course, and hiding it poorly. He thinks he’ll always love him. Since Teiko, honestly, there was nothing Daiki could do. Once he fell for Tetsu, something strong and sickening settled in his gut, something that twists him all up inside whenever he thinks of losing him or hurting him. He feels that way now, like he might puke, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

“Aomine,” Tetsu sighs, long-suffering. Ever the weary husband, convincing even at the young age of 20. 

Before Tetsu can explain Daiki’s feelings away, make him feel like he’s being unreasonable, hysterical, as per usual, Daiki feels everything coming up his throat. He couldn’t stop it all from pouring out if he tried. 

“I’m really that much of a burden to you, huh? It’s so inconvenient for you that I’m not as carefree and naive as I was 5 years ago. I’m not the guy you thought I was, is that it?” Daiki feels his blood simmer. He can’t stop, he’s scaring himself. What if he pushes Tetsu away, like everyone else? The nauseating wave of fear somehow isn’t enough to make  
him back off. 

“Well, sucks for you. I’m not what you bargained for. About time you fucking jumped ship, right? You had no problem with it when we were kids, why change now?” Daiki’s yelling at this point, but Tetsu’s face is as impassable as ever. Daiki’s hands ball themselves into fists, out of his control. He feels like he’s 13 again, desperately trying to get a rise out of his favorite teammate, to elicit a private turning-down of the corners of Tetsu’s mouth, to witness a disapproving tightening of Tetsu’s eyes. “You—I just don’t get how you can be so goddamn ice cold all the time. I guess it would kill you to show some kind of feeling, to look like something other than the benevolent, all-knowing relationship overlord, staring down pityingly at me from his fucking— _high horse!_ ” And Daiki slams his fist into the wall, just to the right of Tetsu’s head. 

Daiki hadn’t even realized he was walking towards him, cornering him, boxing him in against the wall of Tetsu’s living room. Tetsu’s eyes are the slightest bit wide, his eyebrows drawn together. It’s the most expressive Daiki’s seen him all week, and he feels like he might actually throw up now. The fight completely leaves him and Daiki deflates, sinking to his knees. 

“I just don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he breathes out, his hands shaking as he inspects his bloodied knuckles. “I can’t just… be okay. I don’t know how, I don’t…”  
Daiki feels Tetsu’s familiar touch under his chin, small fingertips gently angling his face upwards. Tetsu’s kneeling down, looking into him, through him, seeing parts of Daiki he didn’t know existed, but are there, somewhere in his head behind his eyes. 

“I can’t stand to see you hurt yourself this way, Aomine,” Tetsu says, huffing out a tight breath, the closest thing to a sob Daiki’s ever seen out of Tetsu in their 10 years knowing each other. 

The hurt and fear in Tetsu’s eyes snaps Daiki out of it. Daiki’s broken, he’s unwell. He’s poison. He realizes he needs to get the fuck out of Tetsu’s life before he brings him down, too. 

“It is late,” Tetsu says, voice soft, hesitant. No sudden movements, no harsh words, no stray emotions. Despite the effort, all the eggshells Tetsu’s trying to tiptoe around have long been shattered. “You may feel better after some rest.” Daiki nods solemnly, unbearably sad, and follows Tetsu to bed. Tetsu holds him until he falls asleep, carding his fingers through his hair.

Daiki’s gone in the morning before Tetsu wakes up, his toothbrush and a handful of his own t-shirts in tow, feeling silly about thinking that he, Aomine Daiki, the single most worthless human being on planet earth, could possibly enjoy the cliché of moving in to his boyfriend’s place, slowly, piece by piece, being offered a dresser drawer, a copied key. None of that is meant for him.

But the only person Daiki can stand to destroy is himself, so he fucks off. It’s always been this way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hopefully actually posting chapter 1 will light a fire under my ass to write the rest of this


	2. Chapter 2

Daiki keeps in touch. Well, if scrolling, pointedly nonchalant, down his Instagram feed and pretending not to look at pictures of Tetsu could be considered ‘keeping in touch’. He ignores the pictures, he really does, he ignores the pictures of Tetsu moving on, pictures of Tetsu’s new job, pictures of Tetsu’s new dog, pictures of Tetsu’s new apartment, new clothes, new haircut, new boyfriend. 

Tetsu messages him a few times. ‘How are you?’ He would say. ‘I’ve taken up drinking again,’ Daiki would type, then erase. ‘I haven’t touched a basketball in years,’ he’d try, then delete. He would always end up sending nothing, falling asleep with his phone on his face, waking up hungover, tired, apathetic. After a while, even his obsession with Tetsuya goes away, and all that’s left is boredom, roiling in his gut, taunting him. Go ahead, just try to care about anything, just one thing at all. Nothing can goad Daiki into reacting anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a short one


	3. Chapter 3

Daiki gets in a fight. A stupid, drunk one. He wants to lose himself in something, to feel like it isn’t just him beating himself up all the time. He wants to have some corporeal thing to blame for his pain. 

Daiki is bloodied and drunk at Tetsu’s place before he even realizes that that’s where he’s going. He can’t remember how he got Tetsu’s new address, can’t understand how he knows exactly where it is, how he instinctively goes there, guided as if by muscle memory. The pain aching in his nose, his split chin, makes him feel like he’s a real human being with his feet on Earth for the first time in years. 

He must really look a mess for Tetsuya to look so crushed when he opens the door. Daiki can feel blood running down his upper lip and wipes it away with the back of his hand. 

“Sorry, I—“ he starts to say, but when he looks up, Tetsu’s already walking further into his apartment, wordlessly, unconditionally inviting him in. Tetsu’s new apartment is beautiful, cozy. It instantly feels like a home. Daiki feels like poison is radiating off of him in waves, tainting the walls where he holds on for support as he staggers down the hall and into the bathroom, following Tetsu’s concerned eyes.

They don’t talk much as Tetsu helps him clean up, carefully wiping the dried blood from Daiki’s bruised-up face. When Kagami comes home he looks only a little outraged, greets Daiki only slightly begrudgingly, but doesn’t comment, doesn’t push. He knows who he is, who he was to Tetsu. He trusts that Tetsu will know what’s best. Daiki can definitely respect a guy that can tell when not to run his mouth, especially because Daiki has definitely _not_ mastered that skill. 

Although Tetsu’s acting like it’s a given that Daiki will be spending the night, putting out a blanket and painkillers on the coffee table by the couch, Daiki really can’t bear to be an intruder in Tetsu’s new life any longer. He takes the pills, pretends to fall asleep so Tetsu’s hero complex is satisfied, then sneaks out after Tetsu’s asleep, desperate to remove himself from the new life that Tetsu’s made. 

“Aomine,” he hears, stopping dead in his tracks. He turns around to see Kagami standing in the living room, the light from the balcony outside enough to just barely make out the softness of his hips, the way the waistband of his boxers presses a little indent into his skin. He just got out of bed, sleep coats his voice. The moment feels too intimate, Daiki immediately feels guilty. “If you don’t plan on staying, don’t come back at all.”

It’s so unexpected that all Daiki can do is leave immediately, as quietly as possible, honoring their silent agreement not to wake Tetsuya. 

The sleepy determination in Kagami’s eyes sticks to Daiki’s brain for weeks.


	4. Chapter 4

He doesn’t know how he does it, when it happens. Daiki starts to feel okay again, like he can maybe handle going outside, checking his mail, ordering pizza on the phone instead of online. 

He cleans his shitty studio apartment, all the way down to the indelible layer of grime that was already there when he moved in. It’s something to lose himself in that he doesn’t feel guilty about—and Daiki is an absolute gold fucking medalist at feeling guilty. 

He finds a bass guitar in the trash, a literal garbage bass guitar. He plays it a little, liking the feeling of something completely new to occupy his hands, devoid of any past, unlikely to cloud his thoughts with the Aomine Daiki patented cyclic self-hatred. He buys an amp off craigslist, learns to love the rumble of the bass deep in his chest when he plays, testing the limits of how loud he can get without his neighbors knocking on their shared walls. 

For years, he’d lost every job he’d ever miraculously gotten hired for. One day he’d wake up not giving enough of a shit to show up, or he’d show up drunk. The job he has now he’s been at for at least 6 months, though, and he did it without even noticing. The will to get up and go to work slowly started to outweigh to will to stay in bed. The hassle of getting the call that he was fired and the hassle of finding a new job so he didn’t starve to death started to outweigh the hassle of going, working his hours, feeling the sun on his skin and the exhaustion in his bones that only comes after working up a good sweat. 

Daiki was doing it, living his life in 8-hour increments. Get up, play bass, get yelled at through the wall, scrounge up breakfast, go to work and sweat for 8 hours, come home, play bass, get yelled at through the wall, scrounge up dinner, take a shower and sleep for 8 hours. Five years ago he’d have looked down on himself, disgusted at the mind-numbing repetition of it all. From a few steps back it looked sad, but from where Daiki was, it felt a hell of a lot like hope. 

As long as he stays the hell away from Tetsu, everything will be golden. Tetsu is so, so good at breaking him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whats up im gay ive got my hat on backwards and its tim e to fucken  
> cry
> 
> shoutout to [ shinsun ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2048073) for getting me obsessed w aomine playing bass


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (chanting) boy fight! boy fight! boy fight! boy f

He runs into him at the store. Daiki’s intestines have really been getting on his case about eating literally only pizza and beer for weeks, so he’s here, fondling the vegetables like he always sees people do, not really knowing what he’s groping around for.

Someone accidentally brushes his hand with theirs while reaching for the zucchini, of all fucking things, and Daiki’s heart lurches in his chest. 

“Oh, uh. Hey,” says Kagami, pulling his hand back. 

Daiki can feel heat rising to his face. He knew coming here was a bad idea. For once, he felt like he was on the right track, he’s so fucking responsible and mature he’s out here trying to buy vegetables, but one little brush of the hand with his ex-boyfriend’s boyfriend and he’s out here blushing like this is some kind of ridiculous sitcom. He manages a little grunt in response. Kagami reaches out, finds the zucc’ he was looking for, and piles it into his basket among other delicious-looking things Daiki wishes he knew what to do with. 

“How’s Tetsu?” Daiki grumbles out before he can stop himself. 

Kagami looks at him, studying, searching for something. Daiki feels like a kid, waiting for a teacher to grade his work, defiantly sure that he doesn’t need anyone’s approval but his own, yet hopeful for any kind of validation he can get. Kagami’s a few inches taller than Daiki, he can’t help but notice, which starts to grate at Daiki’s nerves. 

“He’s good,” Kagami finally says, nodding slowly, running his hand through his hair. 

“ _We’re_ good,” he adds, as if to shut down any kind of rampant homewrecker tendencies Daiki might have, to assert his relationship with Tetsu as if Daiki hasn’t been obsessing over it since he first realized how easily replaceable he was.

Irrational hatred of the guy overtakes Daiki, coils in his chest, making it hard to breathe. He can’ t stand that Tetsu chose to be with someone else so quickly after Daiki, that Tetsu was so easily able to move on, like Daiki was a little blip in his life, easily done away with to move on to bigger and better things, bigger and better men. He guesses feeling overpowering hatred towards a man who is basically a complete stranger wins out over not giving a shit if you live or die by a longshot. At least Daiki’s feeling _something._

Despite Daiki’s sneer, Kagami’s still lingering, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Are you, uh, good?” 

Daiki barks out a laugh, caught off guard. 

“Do you really even give a shit? Did Tetsu send you out to spy on me, or are you just here to fuck with my head for your own sick personal reasons, huh?”

“Dumbass, it’s not like he orders me around!” Kagami bites back, his knuckles turning white from gripping the handle of his shopping basket. Daiki just scoffs in response, shaking his head. 

After a minute Kagami presses his fingers into the bridge of his nose and heaves a big sigh. Daiki rolls his eyes. The dude’s spent all of five minutes in Daiki’s presence and his patience is already wearing thin. Fucking weak. 

“Look,” Kagami says, voice level, “I’m not about to bend over backwards trying to give you the benefit of the doubt if you’re just gonna be a huge dick about everything, alright?”

“Oh, fuck off. Thanks for condescending to try and treat me like I’m a human being despite all signs pointing to me being a literal piece of shit, real big of you. You have Tetsu, alright, you fucking win, dude. Congrats! Leave me the fuck alone.” Daiki’s just itching to pick a fight at this point, he’s got years of pent up frustration egging him on. His hands clench and unclench at his sides, restlessness twitching deep in the bones of his wrists. At this point, the only thing he can think to do to diffuse the situation is to run the fuck away with his tail between his legs, so he waves dismissively and turns to leave.

A hand grips his shoulder and whips him around, and a thrill of adrenaline shoots through Daiki at the contact. He throws the momentum of being swung back around into a punch, aimed blindly at the middle of Kagami’s face. His fist connects with Kagami’s nose, and Kagami stumbles back, obviously shocked. His nose starts to bleed pretty badly, dripping down his chin and staining the collar of his white shirt impossibly bright red almost immediately. Kagami takes only a split second to recover, his shopping basket clattering to the floor as he lunges at Daiki, punching just a few inches to the left of Daiki’s nose, one of his knuckles hitting right at the edge of his eye socket. He knows he’ll have a black eye in a few minutes. Daiki can’t help but grin at how easy it was to get a rise out of Kagami—even imagining Tetsu solemnly pinning a ‘World’s Biggest Asshole’ ribbon to his forehead doesn’t dampen his good mood. 

At Kagami’s next punch, startlingly accompanied by a low growl somewhere deep in Kagami’s chest, Daiki starts to dodge backwards, leaning ever so slightly away, his nerves on fire. Kagami’s fist opens, however, and he grabs the front of Daiki’s shirt, tugging him forward and up, his other fist cocked behind his head, ready to punch Daiki the fuck out. The sheer strength and speed behind Kagami’s attack puts Daiki’s mind in a kind of awed haze; he freezes up, time slows almost to a stop. Kagami’s holding Daiki close enough that he can feel Kagami breathe, slow and heavy and hot against his lips, and Daiki’s shit-eating grin falls right off his face. Kagami hasn’t punched yet, seemingly just as frozen as Daiki is. 

A gasp from somewhere behind Kagami snaps them both out of it, and Daiki realizes that there’s a whole world that doesn’t revolve around Daiki and the weird way that his brain works. Kagami drops Daiki’s shirt, pushing him away with a bitter scoff, and wipes the blood off of his mouth with the back of his hand as he turns to leave, making a beeline for the exit. Daiki decides that getting out of that grocery store and never, ever returning sounds like the best idea he’s ever had, and stalks off after him. Buying vegetables decidedly just to first on his list of things to never try again. As if Daiki deciding to punch out his ex-boyfriend’s boyfriend had anything to do with that and nothing to do with Daiki being a little baby who can’t handle feeling anything without resorting to violence. 

Kagami’s sitting on the curb across the street pinching his nose when Daiki walks outside. 

“Dude,” Daiki says, hesitantly, “Tetsu is gonna murder me.”

Kagami gives him this incredulous look, like ‘how dare you even talk to me at this point?’. They stare at each other for what feels like 10 minutes but probably is only 10 seconds, and Kagami cracks a small smile, fighting it the whole time, like he can’t help it. 

“ _'Tetsu'_ ," he replies, air quotes evident, "is gonna murder _me_. You’re a fucking immature asshole, you know that? This is like a TV drama.”

Daiki huffs out a laugh, pressing his fingers tentatively into his swollen eye. “Now you say: ‘Guess I’m sleeping in the doghouse tonight!’, and you look into the camera with a huge shrug. Cue laugh track.”

Kagami laughs weakly, and it sounds about half fake. 

“I gotta go,” he finally says after a few minutes. Daiki doesn’t reply, just sits there for a bit after Kagami takes off before getting up himself and trudging home. 

That night he dreams about Kagami’s bloody nose, about running his thumb along Kagami’s lower lip, about smearing blood across Kagami’s cheek, his chin. He wakes up at two AM with a killer ache in his eye, and lays there for four hours pressing on his bruise, trying hard to think about nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahahahahahaha i love to sin!!!!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the spotty updating im literally jus t putting these up as i finish them :-)

It’s only a week since Daiki ran into Kagami at the store when he opens his front door and finds Tetsu standing there, in the flesh. For the first time in probably years. Daiki’s literally shoving a slice of pizza into his mouth as he opens the door, his jaw pretty much unhinging like a snake’s to fit as much pizza into one bite as he possibly can. 

“Tets’?!”, he chokes out, mouth full. 

“Hello, Daiki,” says Tetsu, gentle, soft. Daiki swears he sees cherry blossom petals floating behind him, everything’s in slo mo. The weight of his love for Tetsu sits in his gut like an infinitely heavy lead brick. Here we go again.

After he manages to swallow his enormous bite of pizza, Daiki invites Tetsu inside for something to drink. 

“I have, uh, beer, and. Water,” Daiki offers, and Tetsu shrugs, so he gets him a glass of water, tosses his pizza in the fridge, and takes a few deep breaths before he heads back out to the living room. After what feels like about 10 years of sitting in awkward silence, Daiki trying not to fidget under Tetsu’s stare, Tetsu says:

“Will you have dinner with me?”

Daiki’s stomach lurches. 

“What? Like, a _date?_ ” he blurts out, feeling like a middle schooler. 

Tetsu just tilts his head to the side slightly, questioning. 

“Uh, I mean, right now?” Daiki amends, wiping the sweat from his palms on the thighs of his basketball shorts. 

“Yes.”

So, of course, Daiki hops in the shower, puts on something that isn’t sweatpants (surprisingly challenging), and they leave. It feels so surreal just being near Tetsu for the first time in so long. He doesn’t think he’s really managed to process it yet. 

They don’t say anything on most of their walk. After a little while, Daiki starts to recognize where they are. 

“At your place?” Daiki asks.

Tetsu nods. 

“Kagami is an excellent cook,” he says, and Daiki can’t help but feel a little disappointed that Kagami is gonna be there. Ever since their little fight at the store, Daiki always feels really weird and nervous whenever Kagami crosses his mind, which is a lot. He recognizes the feeling. The literal last thing that Daiki needs is to have a crush on his ex-boyfriend’s new boyfriend, especially when Daiki is desperately trying to get back on his ex-boyfriend’s good side. 

When Daiki glances back over at Tetsu, Tetsu’s giving him this look like, ‘oh honey, you’ve got a big storm coming’, and Daiki feels a cold sweat break out on the back of his neck. A split second later Tetsu’s face is blank, and Daiki is left wondering if he imagined it the whole walk there.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw alcohol i guess
> 
> they drink a lot of beer which in my experience is what being a sad 20-something is all about so there u have it folks

As soon as they walk through Tetsu’s door, Daiki is assaulted with the most heavenly smell to have graced his nostrils, probably since he moved out of his mom’s house. Kagami does seem to, in fact, be an excellent cook, if smell is anything to go by. 

Tetsu leads the way down the hall to the kitchen, and Kagami nods at them with a muffled hello, his mouth full of his own food, tasting as he goes. His nose is still bruised from their fight.

“Don’t ruin your appetite,” Daiki snarks, leaning over the counter to see what Kagami’s making. 

“Impossible,” Tetsu replies with a small smile. 

Kagami says nothing, absorbed in smelling, spicing, running around the kitchen. Daiki finds himself mesmerized by a bead of sweat running down the back of Kagami’s neck. Kagami looks… really fucking good. His skin is flushed from the heat of the stove and his eyebrows are furrowed in concentration, his teeth pulling his lower lip into his mouth slightly when he pauses to think. Bruises suit his skin tone really well. Daiki looks away when feels Tetsu’s eyes on him, and his face heats at having been caught staring. 

“What?” 

“Nothing, Daiki,” Tetsu says, one eyebrow slightly raised. He goes to the fridge and grabs two beers before turning to leave the kitchen. 

Daiki follows, questioning every life choice he’s ever made. Why? Why is he like this? Something being completely off-limits just makes him want it more. He’s like a little kid—too immature to know what’s bad for him, too egotistical not to take everything as a challenge. The exact worst thing he could do is exactly what he wants to do most. He tries to put thoughts of Kagami entirely out of his head, hoping that if he just ignores it hard enough it’ll go away. 

“Nice black eye,” says Tetsu tentatively, opening and putting a beer down on the coffee table in front of where Daiki is meant to sit. Tetsu settles softly on the other end of the couch, opening his own beer. 

“You should see the other guy,” Daiki deadpans, and Tetsu smiles. 

It feels weird, but nice. Sitting here drinking beer with Tetsu reminds him of when they were first dating, testing out the waters. They’d been best friends since grade school, but being boyfriends was a big change, and Daiki was too nervous that he’d fuck it up to really feel comfortable at first. He feels that way now—he knows Tetsu, their pasts are inseparably intertwined, even the years they spent apart, and they know each other better than anyone else. But Daiki is anxious, and trying hard to make it seem like he isn’t. 

“You look well, considering.” Tetsu punctuates this with a sip of beer, his eyebrows raised. Considering what? The fight? His entire sad sorry excuse for a life? Tetsu doesn’t elaborate, and Daiki doesn’t ask.

“Uh, thanks, I guess?” 

“Have you been playing basketball?” Tetsu says it hesitantly, like he knows he’s poking at a sore subject. Tetsu’s always been blunt.

“No, I, uh. Nope. I found a bass,” Daiki says, deflecting. 

“Oh?”

“I’m really good.”

Daiki get out his phone and scoots a little closer to Tetsu, and plays him a little recording of something he wrote. He’s pretty proud of it—he’s been practicing constantly, trying hard to put what he has in his brain into notes he can play, trying to get it to sound right. 

“It’s brilliant,” says Tetsu, nodding. “Very… you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Hm.” Tetsu pauses, as if trying to find the right word. Daiki’s chest tightens. Tetsu turns his head to face Daiki, and he realizes that they’re sitting way closer than he thought they were. Tetsu’s eyes are locked onto his, seeing past them and into his brain. “Self-assured. Exhilarated, almost. Blinding.”

Before Daiki can even parse what the hell Tetsu just said, Kagami barges in, dissipating the weird feeling Daiki has that he’s way back before any of this happened, before the honeymoon period of his and Tetsu’s relationship was over, when nothing existed for either of them except each other. Daiki is abruptly brought back to the present, and jumps up from the couch and away from Tetsu, like he’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t be. 

“’Sup,” says Kagami, oblivious. “Thanks for breaking my nose.”

“You know what, anytime,” Daiki replies with a breathy laugh, sitting back down on the couch and hiding behind his beer. 

Although across from the couch there’s a perfectly comfy-looking and spacious armchair, screaming Kagami’s name, Kagami decides that the best and most obvious spot for him to rest his ass is right between Tetsu and Daiki. He plops right down, leaning back and spreading one of his arms out on the back of the couch behind Daiki’s head, taking up as much space as is humanly possible. It’s getting a little cramped, what with both Daiki and Kagami being huge and the couch probably only being made to seat two normal-sized people, but Kagami doesn’t seem to notice that Tetsu is being smushed into the arm rest. Daiki’s skin feels like it’s on fire where his knee is touching Kagami’s.

“Shouldn’t be too long now,” Kagami says, propping his feet up on the coffee table. 

“It smells delicious,” Tetsu says, strategically angling himself to where Kagami isn’t practically sitting on his lap. 

“Ah, thanks,” Kagami says, grinning. “I think you guys will like it…”

Daiki tries to nonchalantly lean back into the couch and focus on drinking his beer, 100% ready to check out of the conversation and let Tetsu and Kagami talk about the food, or whatever, but his neck ends up kind of resting on Kagami’s arm, and Daiki tenses up immediately. Kagami doesn’t really notice, or doesn’t care, because he just keeps prattling on to Tetsu about whatever he’s been making. Daiki’s breath comes a little quicker and every time Kagami explains something a little more animatedly than usual, gesturing with his free hand, and his arm brushes against the short hairs at the base of Daiki’s neck, he feels his skin break out in goosebumps. Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it. Daiki’s never really been good at controlling his thoughts.

This torture goes on for about a minute before Kagami, apparently referring to Daiki, brings his free hand and pats it against Daiki’s chest a few times before resting it there, the hand that was gripping the couch behind Daiki’s head coming down to grab his shoulder, and says, “This guy isn’t gonna know what hit him.” 

Daiki looks over at them blankly, gripping his beer tightly to keep from flying off the face of the earth and ejecting himself straight into the sun. Kagami grins at him and goes back to talking excitedly to Tetsu, apparently not expecting any response from Daiki. Kagami dragging his hand across Daiki’s pec to go back to gesturing at Tetsu feels endless, and Daiki’s skin feels cool at the loss of Kagami’s warm touch. 

Although Tetsu’s attention is mostly back on Kagami, he eyes Daiki every once in a while, what seems like a knowing smile subtly curving his lips. Daiki can feel himself blushing and looks pointedly anywhere but at Kagami. He holds his cold beer to his overheated cheek, leaning forward a little. 

“You alright?” Kagami asks, suddenly, and Daiki jumps. 

“Hot in here,” Daiki says, his voice rough. His mouth feels drier than it has ever felt in his entire life. 

Kagami agrees with a small ‘hm’, and gets up to open the window. He excuses himself to go check on the food, and Daiki feels at least 20 times better when Kagami has left the room. Daiki can’t help but let out a small sigh of relief.

“He’s not very good with personal space,” Tetsu says to his beer, not looking at Daiki. 

Daiki shakes his head and lets out a small laugh, leaning back on the couch. Tetsu’s really living the life. A ridiculously hot boyfriend with no concept of personal space who’s an amazing cook, huh. Even someone as rational and level-headed as Tetsu can think with his dick and his stomach sometimes, then. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha so funny story: this story's word doc file name on my computer is "why don't i just write aokaga like i've been meaning to.docx" because it started out as an exclusively aokuro fic that was just a one shot (which is a chapter that's been repurposed and will show up much later than this one maybe) and lmao look where we ended up


	8. Chapter 8

Kagami calls them in to eat, and they do. The food is amazing, and Daiki is practically moaning around his fork all throughout dinner. They talk about Daiki’s shitty construction job, about Tetsu’s writing, about Kagami being a firefighter, which, what the fuck. It’s like he’s fake. It’s like he’s straight out of porn. Daiki talks about playing bass, and Kagami seems as impressed as Tetsu was when he plays some more of his music. 

When they’re done and Kagami gets up to clear their plates, Tetsu gives Kagami a scathing look, to which he sits down immediately. Tetsu starts to clear their plates away and Daiki gets up to help, wondering what the fuck that’s all about. After Tetsu goes to the kitchen, Kagami says, “He has this stupid rule where whoever cooks doesn’t have to do the dishes, but I literally _always_ cook, so he _always_ has to do them.”

Daiki laughs, gathering up their empty beer bottles. “Makes sense to me,” he replies, shrugging. 

Kagami looks outraged. “Come on! It would go faster if we both did it, right?”

“Nah, dude.” Daiki shakes his head. “It’s about chivalry, or whatever.”

“Chivalry my ass,” Kagami scoffs, following him into the kitchen. He grabs them each another beer. “It’s all a power trip, I’m positive.” 

“Is it?” Tetsu challenges. 

Daiki’s rinsing out the empty beer bottles and putting them beside the sink to be recycled later when Kagami reaches around him for the bottle opener, pressing pretty much his entire body against Daiki’s back as he roots around in the drawer at Daiki’s crotch level. Every time Kagami’s forearm brushes against Daiki’s side, he feels a wave of heat wash over him, and he keeps swallowing, trying to keep his breath even and trying not to press back against him. 

“Mhmm,” Kagami says basically right against the side of Daiki’s neck, “you’re a freak. You know I’ll just do whatever you tell me to and you love it.”

Daiki feels like his heart is about to give out. 

“Hm,” Tetsu says, reserving commentary.

Kagami mercifully finds the fucking bottle opener and backs off. He hands one of the beers to Daiki and Daiki pretends to dry some of the dishes that Tetsu’s been washing so that he can hide his crotch behind the counter until he calms down a little. 

Kagami leans against the counter opposite him, sipping on his beer. “So I hear you play basketball.”

“Played,” Daiki corrects sourly, hopping up to sit on the counter. “It’s been forever.”

“Wanna play one-on-one?” Kagami asks, hopeful. 

“There’s no point. You can’t beat me, I’m the best.”

It comes off as matter-of-fact, but in reality Daiki has no idea. He was definitely the best when he stopped, but—is he any good now? Regardless, some casual player like Kagami probably isn’t anywhere near his level. 

“I’m really good,” Kagami says. “And you said it yourself: you’re rusty. I bet I can beat you, no sweat.”

And it’s like those are the magic words. Daiki hasn’t felt the urge to play in years, the old pain it brings up not worth the trouble. The worst thing in the entire world is hating something that you used to love more than anything, and not having any way to fix it. But with Kagami standing here in front of him, a defiant look on his face. Well, Daiki just physically can’t refuse his challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >:-)


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this ... really got away from me so quickly

So they end up walking to a nearby park where Kagami and Tetsu know there’s a basketball court, both of them in jeans and half-drunk, Tetsu tagging along carrying half a case of beer which Daiki’s convinced is a terrible idea. Daiki’s skin is warm from drinking, and the cool night air on his face feels amazing. 

Kagami gets right down to it, standing between him and the hoop, tossing him the ball roughly. Daiki turns the ball around in his hands a little, dribbling a few times, getting a feel for it again. He really, sincerely hopes Kagami is good. It would be so disappointing if he’s the type to just give up in the face of Daiki’s power like everyone else.

He drives forward, ghosting around Kagami easily and throwing the ball into the net. Sure, he’s rusty, and everything feels a little off, but getting the basketball in the basket is pretty much second nature to him at this point. The booze is loosening up his muscles, and it’s not like he’s been sitting on his ass for 5 years, so he gets into it easily enough. 

Well, that answers that. Kagami didn’t even come close to stopping him. He tries not to look too crestfallen, dribbling back over to where Kagami hasn’t moved, about to put on his best ‘I told you so’ face, but. Kagami’s laughing. Kagami’s cracking up, a light in his eyes like he’s having the time of his life. 

“Holy shit,” Kagami finally says, “you’re fast.”

“Yeah,” Daiki shrugs. 

Kagami widens his stance and gets ready, for real. At first, Daiki’s up 6-0, but Kagami’s picking up Daiki’s style fast, gaining speed, jumping higher than anything Daiki’s ever seen before. He’s good, he’s really good, and Daiki finds himself breaking a sweat to keep his lead. He feels better than he has in years.

By the time they stop, they’re both drenched and out of breath, way too drunk, and Daiki feels like he’s going to puke. They stopped counting, but the last thing Daiki can remember is Kagami leading 32-30, Tetsu cheering them on and making his way through the case of beer he brought. Daiki makes one last shot and collapses to the ground, his chest heaving, laughter bubbling up in his throat. 

He props himself up on an elbow to watch Kagami run over to where Tetsu is and hoist him up and over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, running around the court with him and giggling like an idiot. Tetsu bats playfully at Kagami’s back, laughing.

Daiki lays back down and closes his eyes, wanting to sink into the asphalt. His head spins. What’s the point of any of this if he has to sit on the sidelines and watch Tetsu be so happy with someone else? He really feels like he might throw up now. He wishes he was home.

Daiki hears the hiss of a can being opened somewhere directly above his face, and wonders what could possibly be causing that sound for a split second before beer is being poured all over his face. What the fuck? His eyes snap open to the sight of Kagami crouching above him with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face. 

“Get up,” he says, laughing. 

“Drunk asshole,” Daiki growls, lunging up at him and knocking him over. 

Daiki climbs on top of him, laughing, grabbing the can from Kagami’s hand and pouring it on him in revenge. When Daiki throws his arms up in victory, Kagami grabs his sides and, realizing Daiki’s ticklish, doesn’t stop until Daiki squirms all the way off of Kagami and onto the asphalt. They wrestle like this for a while, rolling around, both of them giggling breathlessly and scraping up their elbows on the rough ground and not caring at all. 

They stop when Kagami ends up straddling Daiki, pinning his hands against the asphalt above his head. Kagami, exhausted and drunk, lets himself fall forward, leaning so that his chin rests against Daiki’s shoulder, his mouth inches from Daiki’s ear. They’re both breathing heavily, and Kagami’s hot breath on Daiki’s neck makes him shudder. He tries to squirm out from under him, feeling overwhelmed, and ends up with his nose pressed to Kagami’s shoulder, breathing in the smell of sweat and beer and Kagami. 

Kagami pushes himself up a little, making things infinitely worse by putting his face directly above Daiki’s. Daiki feels a drip of something (beer? sweat?) fall from the tip of Kagami’s nose to Daiki’s cheek. He looks up into Kagami’s face, studying the way his brows are furrowed, the way his mouth hangs open as he breathes, the way everything he’s thinking—confusion, mainly—is played out on his face, plainly obvious.

“Get off,” Daiki says quietly, into Kagami’s mouth. 

Kagami rolls off of him onto his back and clears his throat. 

“Don’t fight,” Tetsu says, crawling over. He splays himself out in the small space between them, heaving a big sigh. “You have to like each other.”

The three of them stay like that, saying nothing, for what feels like hours, staring up at whatever stars they can see past the streetlights. Tetsu starts shivering after a while, so they wake up Kagami and head back to Tetsu’s, slowly sobering up.

Daiki doesn’t refuse when Tetsu suggests he spend the night, just flops down onto the couch face first and falls asleep almost immediately. 

He dreams he’s hiding in the closet of Tetsu’s room, watching Tetsu and Kagami sleep. Tetsu wakes up and looks straight into his eyes through the crack in the closet doors, and smiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love to serve up that fresh aokaga content


End file.
